Main menu

Greenville city council passes the anti-Citizens United resolution!

Submitted by Jake Gellar-Goad on Tue, 09/11/2012 - 16:23

You may remember reading about all the hard work the Democracy Summer internship teams did over the summer. In particular one project the Greenville team took on was to rally public support and meet with a majority of the City Council members to educate them about the anti-Citizens United resolution. Through their hard work over the summer, last night we won the milestone 10th city in North Carolina to pass this resolution, and the first east of 95!

I have to say that I am continually impressed with Greenville's willingness to take a stand on the issues. They were also a city that passed a resolution opposing amendment one, and a city where most precincts went against amendment one.

Major kudos to former interns Killian and Griffin, and our friends at NCVCE for making this happen! We also couldn't have done it without the many local residents who came by, stood up, and spoke out during the council meeting as well. I'll leave you with some quotes pulled from Killian and Griffin's weekly blogs over the summer so you can see the behind the scenes work that made this possible.

In Greenville, we met with Councilperson Calvin Mercer. ...

We gave our first presentation — covering ...the Citizens United ruling — to the group.

That is why we are speaking with a group in Rocky Mount regarding the anti-Citizens United resolution and informing them about our Pathways to Power program, which will be held in their city on June 23-24th. Also we will be speaking with Councilwoman Kandie Smith about the anti-Citizens United resolution in hopes of trying to get Greenville to get on board.

On Tuesday we went out to Greenville to meet with Councilwoman Marion Blackburn, seeking support for our resolution against Citizens United. We’ve got a few other councilpersons on board, and it seems like there’s a good chance that Greenville City Council will pass [the resolution]

The Move to Amend tour stopped through Greenville, NC on Tuesday night and we were in attendance to hear David Cobb, an executive committee member, give a very insightful and inspiring speech regarding the history of the United States, the power that we as citizens have, and then went ahead to break down the Citizens United decision and how it affects us as citizens. He finished by encouraging us to band together to fight against this Citizens United decision. Melissa Price Kromm, the Coalition Director of North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections, will be providing a video link to his speech soon. This is definitely something you should see!

Check out The Greenville Guardian, a free, independent newspaper, for some of our writing! [they wrote pieces regarding the Citizens United resolution]

“Whether the issue is health care, education, crime or the environment, all of Greenville’s residents are affected if public policies are unduly influenced by money, rather than what is best for the people,” said Jake Gellar-Goad, the lead organizer with the nonpartisan group Democracy North Carolina, which spearheaded the campaign to pass the resolution.

More than a dozen Greenville residents joined Gellar-Goad at City Hall on Monday in support of the movement, which has been described locally as “trail blazing” because many voters across the country have become increasingly worried that government is falling under the control of the “money’s interest.”

BlueNC is a labor of love. Views expressed by any particular community member are simply that: the views of that particular member. If you have questions or concerns about the content you see here, please contact us.